Telephone answering apparatuses are well known in the art. Typical applications of telephone answering apparatuses are in telephone answering services, call centers, and desktop applications.
A telephone answering service using a telephone answering apparatus typically answers telephone calls for clients it services. Telephone calls to clients' telephone numbers are redirected to the telephone answering service where they are answered by operators of a telephone answering apparatus in a manner specified by the clients, which may be intended to give the impression that the telephone calls are being answered by the clients themselves. The telephone answering apparatus typically provides the operators with the capability to record text messages from callers which the operators later read back to the clients, to forward telephone calls to a voice mail system from which the clients later retrieve messages from callers, and, if applicable, to provide other telephone call processing operations specified by the clients, such as taking orders from callers for products and services offered by the clients. The telephone answering apparatus also typically includes an auto attendant which automatically answers telephone calls without requiring an operator's attention for clients who have selected this option. The auto attendant typically uses interactive voice response techniques to enable callers to use Touchtone keys to select how their telephone calls are to be processed. For example, the auto attendant may enable the callers to select to have their telephone calls transferred to another telephone number, to the voice mail system, or to an operator of the telephone answering apparatus. A typical example of a client of telephone answering service is a doctor's office for which the telephone answering service answers telephone calls outside normal business hours.
A call center using a telephone answering apparatus is similar to a telephone answering service and provides basically the same services as a telephone answering service, except that a call center typically answers telephone calls for a single client, which typically operates the call center, while a telephone answering service typically answers telephone calls for a number of clients, none of which operate the telephone answering service. A typical example of a call center is a customer service department of a business.
A desktop application using a telephone answering apparatus is typically implemented on a PC (personal computer) or a workstation used by an individual user, and enables the individual user to answer and process his telephone calls in basically the same manner as a telephone answering service. In this case, the individual user is the client. Typical environments for desktop applications using a telephone answering apparatus include a business environment, a SOHO (small office home office) environment, and a home or personal use environment.
The term "client" in the present application means any entity whose telephone calls are being answered by a telephone answering apparatus, such as a business, a specific department of a business, or an individual user.
The term "user" in the present application means any person who uses a terminal to answer telephone calls to telephone numbers for which telephone calls are being answered by a telephone answering apparatus, such as an operator in a telephone answering service, an operator in a call center, or an individual user.
The term "terminal" in the present application means any device which is used by a user to answer telephone calls to telephone numbers for which telephone calls are being answered by a telephone answering apparatus, such as an operator station of a telephone answering service, an operator station of a call center, or a personal computer or a workstation used by an individual user.
FIG. 1 shows a conceptual diagram of an example of a prior-art telephone answering apparatus 1 which includes a telephony interface 4, an auto attendant 5, a voice mail system 6, a text message system 7, a client database 8 storing client data files 9, a terminal 10, an audio headset 11, a display 12, a keyboard 13, and a mouse 14.
Although FIG. 1 shows a mouse 14, which is a conventional example of a pointing device, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that any other conventional pointing device may be used in place of mouse 14.
Although FIG. 1 shows a single terminal 10, a plurality of terminals may be provided when necessary, such as in a telephone answering service which answers telephone calls for a number of clients, or in a call center which answers telephone calls for a large client.
Telephony interface 4 is operatively connected by telephone line(s) 3 to a telco (telephone company) 2, such as a public or private switched telephone network.
Auto attendant 5 is operatively connected to telephony interface 4, voice mail system 6, and terminal 10, and automatically answers telephone calls without requiring a user's attention for clients who have selected this option. Auto attendant 5 uses interactive voice response techniques to enable callers to use Touchtone keys to select how their telephone calls are to be processed. For example, auto attendant 5 may enable the callers to select to have their telephone calls transferred to another telephone number, to voice mail system 6, or to terminal 10 for answering by a user.
Terminal 10 is operatively connected to telephony interface 4, auto attendant 5, voice mail system 6, text message system 7, client database 8, audio headset 11, display 12, keyboard 13, and mouse 14, and enables a user to use audio headset 11, display 12, keyboard 13, and mouse 14 to answer and process telephone calls for clients received from telco 2 over telephone line(s) 3. The telephone calls may arrive at terminal 10 directly from telephony interface 4, or indirectly from telephony interface 4 via auto attendant 5. Terminal 10 enables the user to take messages from callers using audio headset 11 and record the messages using display 12, keyboard 13, and mouse 14 for storage in text message system 7, or to forward telephone calls to voice mail system 6 at the callers' request. If applicable, terminal 10 also enables the user to provide other telephone call processing operations specified by the clients using audio headset 11, display 12, keyboard 13, and mouse 14 as necessary, such as taking orders from callers for products and services offered by the clients.
Client database 8 stores a client data file 9 for each client whose telephone calls are being answered by prior-art telephone answering apparatus 1. Client data file 9 includes data items which provide information identifying the client and specifying how the client's telephone calls are to be answered and processed. These data items are well known in the art. Auto attendant 5 and the user of terminal 10 answer telephone calls for the client based on the data items in client data file 9, which include a data item specifying whether telephone calls for the client are to be answered initially by auto attendant 5 or by the user of terminal 9. Such a data item is well known in the art.
It is noted that the connections between the elements of prior-art telephone answering apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 are conceptual connections, and do not necessarily represent actual physical connections. As will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, the conceptual connections shown in FIG. 1 may be implemented with many different actual physical connections, which may include direct-wired connections, bus connections, network connections, and any other connections which are known in the art.
Furthermore, it is noted that prior-art telephone answering apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is merely exemplary, and many modifications of prior-art telephone answering apparatus 1 will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.
Examples of prior-art telephone answering apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,916,726, 5,113,429, 5,259,024, 5,420,852, and 5,469,491 and U.S. Reexamination Certificate B1 4,916,726 which are assigned to the assignee of the present application. The contents of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,916,726, 5,113,429, 5,259,024, 5,420,852, and 5,469,491 and U.S. Reexamination Certificate B1 4,916,726 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,916,726 and 5,420,852 each include a microfiche appendix listing a computer program for implementing an embodiment of prior-art telephone answering apparatus shown in FIG. 1 using IBM AT-compatible PCs.
An example of a device which may be used to implement telephony interface 4, auto attendant 5, text message system 6, voice mail system 7, and client database 8 of prior-art telephone answering apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is the commercially available Amtelco Infinity CTI (computer-telephony integration) server, version 4.4.0j, which was available from American Tel-A-System, Inc. (Amtelco), McFarland, Wis., the assignee of the present invention, as of the filing date of the present application. The Amtelco Infinity CTI server is based on an IBM AT-compatible PC.
An example of a device which may be used to implement terminal 10 of prior-art telephone answering apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a commercially available IBM AT-compatible PC running an Amtelco DOS (disk operating system) terminal application program which was available from Amtelco as of the filing date of the present application for use with the Amtelco Infinity CTI server.
Although specific capabilities and applications of telephone answering apparatuses have been described above, it is noted that other capabilities and applications of telephone answering apparatuses are well known in the art, and that further capabilities and applications of telephone answering apparatuses will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.
Over the past several years, the use of the Internet and the World Wide Web by organizations and individuals has increased dramatically, and is continuing to increase at a rapid rate.
Many organizations, such as businesses, not-for-profit organizations, educational institutions, and governmental agencies, have implemented sites on the World Wide Web (Web sites) including one or more pages (Web pages) which provide information about the organizations and products and services they offer.
These Web sites may enable individuals to interact with the organizations, such as by ordering products and services directly from the organizations via the Web sites.
Also, many individuals have implemented Web sites including one or more Web pages which provide information about themselves and topics they are interested in.
As is well known in the art, Web sites may also be implemented on an intranet, which is basically similar to the Internet, except that an intranet is typically implemented by an organization or individual primarily for exclusive use by that organization or individual. However, the organization or individual may also permit outsiders to use its intranet.
Web pages may include many different types of information which are well known in the art, such as HTML (hypertext markup language) documents, Java scripts, and ActiveX scripts.
Web pages are identified by a unique Internet or intranet address known as a URL (universal resource locator), which is well known in the art. A Web page may be displayed on a display of a PC using a software application known as a Web browser running on the PC by entering the URL of the Web page in a URL field in a screen displayed by the Web browser. Many different Web browsers are well known in the art.
The information available on Internet and intranet Web sites that have been implemented by organizations and individuals can only be accessed by individuals who have access to the Internet. Although the number of individuals who have access to the Internet has increased dramatically over the past several years, there are still many individuals who do not have access to the Internet. Furthermore, even though an individual may have access to the Internet, he may not be aware that a particular organization or individual he is interested in contacting or learning more about has implemented an Internet or intranet Web site, or he may not be permitted to access a particular intranet Web site he is interested in.
Many organizations and individuals which have implemented Web sites also use telephone answering apparatuses, either directly, such as in call centers which they operate or desktop applications they use, or indirectly, such as in telephone answering services of which they are clients.
It would be desirable if a terminal in a telephone answering apparatus could automatically display a Web page from a client's Web site when a user answers a telephone call for the client, and provide the user with the capability of navigating through the Web site while processing the telephone call. This would enable the user to quickly provide information available on the client's Web site to the caller. However, prior-art telephone answering apparatuses do not have this capability.
The article "MULTI CALL: WebCall--a real Virtual Call Centre", M2 Presswire, Nov. 27, 1995, describes WebCall, a virtual call center which provides Web pages which a customer can access with a Web browser. If the customer requires support while browsing the virtual call center Web pages, he can click on an embedded telephone graphic, which will cause WebCall to place locate and place a telephone call to a dedicated or virtual agent who has the necessary skill set, compatible with the customer's known or assumed characteristics, and transfer the telephone call and the relevant Web page to the agent's desktop. However, in this case, the Web page which is displayed on the agent's desktop when the agent answers the customer's telephone call was selected by the customer, rather than being automatically displayed in response to the customer's telephone call. Thus, the M2 Presswire reference does not disclose automatically displaying one of the virtual call center Web pages when an agent answers a telephone call from customer calling the virtual call center.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,861 to Haigh discloses a transaction processing system and method which includes a telephone answering apparatus, and has the capability of receiving data transmissions from the Internet and the World Wide Web and identifying and storing Internet addresses of the received data transmissions. However, Haigh does not disclose automatically displaying a Web page from a client's Web site when a user of the telephone answering apparatus answers a telephone call for the client.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,412 to Srinivasan discloses a method and system for providing a telephony subscriber with Internet information related to a caller calling the subscriber. In one of the embodiments disclosed by Srinivasan, a Web page related to a caller is automatically displayed on the subscriber's equipment when the caller calls the subscriber. However, Srinivasan does not disclose automatically displaying a Web page of the subscriber when a caller calls the subscriber.
Thus, the M2 Presswire reference, Haigh, and Srinivasan do not disclose a telephone answering apparatus which automatically displays a Web page from a client's Web site when a user answers a telephone call for the client.